Eve Blond Ale – Dancing Camel

They say its in the name. They even say, that sometimes on a Tuesday night, the camel dances to a bottomless pint glass. But most mystic of all, it is told, albit in hushed tones and in strict confidential nature between the mystic hunters stood parallel at the urinals (Bottomless Tuesdays!), that this beer I am about to review is actually one of the first commercially sold craft ale in the holy land and not so holy city of Tel Aviv.

BOOM! The rest is history and I bask in the glorious aftermath of the ever growing ale revolution in Israel.

History time: Way way back in the mid 2000’s a dude wearing a baseball cap and sporting a goatee that only a native Yankies could get away with, decided that the time was right to share his passion with the Zion natives. David Cohen was less of a risk taker than a bloody revolutionist to whom we all owe a drink or two from our pockets (do that at his bars and the revolutionist becomes a laughing businessman). He opened up his Micro brewery and set about creating ale recipes which combine traditional ingredients and hops with twists of Israeli/Biblical culture (hence ‘Eve’ I suspect). The use of Dates in his “Olde Papa” is a perfect example. So actually, not only was he up against the regular lager drinkers who were not really to be blamed for their naive choice given the lack of alternative; and try to convert them to give ale a go, but he was also facing the challenge of convincing anyone who would listen that dates and beer to actually go together (if done expertly of course).

To be honest, placing myself metaphorically in any Tel Avivian’s shoes back in those early days, I too would have been, well…pessimistic. Having said that, if I were to stick around in those shoes a little longer and tried David’s beers, I can only imagine the pop-eye effect they would have had on me, marking the beginning of a conversion unto the craft. And its that exact effect which has rewarded Dancing Camel with an almost unrivalled reputation as producing some of the most spectacular beers this country has to offer, one of them being ‘EVE Blond ale.’

POURS:

THE SMELL:

Good pouting malty wiff , very blond ale. so far so spot on with the character. Not much in the way of hops at all. ‘Modest hoppage’ is the term I would coin for EVE, with the malts doing categorising.

THE TASTE

My tasting book taught me to sip first before going in the deep end, to judge the balance between the two mouth feel’s and the different taste buds awakened.
My advice? Do not even bother with this for EVE.

You know how sometimes you can have a brew where just a sip will tell you far less than a full mouth swirling swig of it? Well this is not one of them.

Very light mouth feel with this. Eve is a transparent & honest light malty beer. You get a consistent fresh taste from beginning to end. Besides the light malts, another stand out feature which even the novice beer drinker would pin-point, is the yeasty tones. Quite powerful, A real stand out feature of this beer.

There is almost no after taste at all, much like a lager in that sense, but the tasting notes from the malt and yeast are what makes this blonde ale very refreshing and drinkable.

AFTERTHOUGHTS

The feeling I got having a quarter pint of this beer, was that is best suited to wash down a spicy dish of some sorts. Not having any to hand, I made up the quickest concoction possible to test my theory. A can of soft chickpeas, some finely chopped red onion, chopped parsley, splash of balsamic, splash of olive oil, sprinkle of pepper and a dash or two of Tabasco; and the theory was tested. And proven, the light but almost sour yeasty taste of the beer artistically and boldly cut through tangy balsamic and hot Tabasco to give this beer a whole new dimension.

NOTES:

If, like myself, you are becoming a little over hopped-out at the moment with the all the new IPA’s popping up left and right, and want to go back and experience a different but just as pleasurable beer, have yourself and Eve; best had with spicy Tapas. And by that I mean, small bite size Tapas dishes, and mouthful Of Eve’s Blond Ale and witness a couple of natures jigsaws pieces slot neatly into place the way I am sure G-d intended.